Gripe About Our Medical System

[TuMicks]

So I was out in the open range for 5 days where we hold our Double Header Hunt Test. Before I got there, I'd had some asthma. While there, we were in blazing hot sun for 2 days, then freezing wet cold (welcome to Northern Nevada). During the time the front was moving in, we were exposed to heavy, heavy winds... a veritable haboob with antigens galore flying around in the wind.

I got really sick... upped my Prednisone to 60 mg. Coughing my head off. Short of breath. Feeling like crap. I went to my family doctor, and she prescribed monoleukast and ordered a consult from a pulmonologist.

3 months. I won't get in to the specialist for 3 bloody months. What is the point of going? I was told they'd do chest x-rays and pulmonary function testing. Great. That will tell them exactly zip about my current condition.

So for any practical purposes, unless you're in the hospital on a ventilator, you cannot see a pulmonologist when you're sick.

[Anna Scott]

Our Canadian system can give you long waits to see a specialist but if you are as sick as you sound then you usually can get in much faster. When I was diagnosed with breast cancer on a Tuesday and told I would need a mastectomy my sister went nuts and insisted I get a second opinion. I was able to see another oncologist the next Wednesday and had my surgery the following Thursday. Whole process was under two weeks. When you need our system it is there. Elective surgeries are the slow process.
Right now we are seeing a number of specialists with my sister. She has sarcodosis (sp) and her lungs get compromised every so often. As we go from specialist to specialist all I can think of is I'm glad we're not paying.
I hope you get feeling better maybe a little more pressure on your doctor is needed. he squeaky wheel gets the oil.

[TuMicks]

I think I'll have to call my PCP back on Monday. I began coughing up green sputum last night (I know... lovely topic, isn't it.) I'm on medicare so I am not paying for this. Problem is... "you get what you pay for." But the problem isn't really medicare or single-payer. The market distortions that occurred in medicine when the O-care was passed, in our town, forced all the docs into conglomerates, in our case, the two major hospitals vacuumed them all up. So now when you need a specialist, you deal with a person who looks at computer screens and thinks only so far as which calendar boxes are empty. (When I told her my problem involved BREATHING... for Lordy's sake... she told me to go to urgent care if I got worse. Wow. Profound. Thanks.)

[Bounty's Wife]

Honestly, with the way things are working right now, if you are as bad as you sound, I would just go to the ER and foot that co-pay.